Friday, Feb 16, 2018 at 7:53 AM

Amtrak is considering suspending service on tracks that don't have sophisticated speed controls by a Dec. 31 deadline, the railroad's top executive said Thursday, threatening to disrupt operations across the U.S. in a push to strengthen safety after a series of deadly wrecks.
President and CEO Richard Anderson told a House subcommittee that Amtrak is worried passengers are being put at risk by delays in installing Positive Train Control systems on tracks it uses but doesn't own. Those tracks make up a majority of Amtrak's network.
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Thursday, Feb 15, 2018 at 2:05 PM

Samantha Grady was in her Holocaust class with her best friend Wednesday afternoon when they heard two shots fired outside the door of their classroom in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Soon, the gunman would approach, and that friend would become one of at least 17 people to die in the massacre at the high school in Parkland, Florida, one of the deadliest in U.S. history. Grady was wounded but escaped, she said in an emotional interview on the "Today" show Thursday morning, crediting something her friend told her with helping her survive the harrowing ordeal.
When they heard the first gunshots, the students in Grady's class ran for cover, the high school junior said: "There was a big bookshelf and we all kind of huddled there together. We clamped really close tightly together."
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Thursday, Feb 15, 2018 at 10:05 AM

The high winds relented and allowed Mikaela Shiffrin to make her much anticipated debut at the Pyeongchang Games on Thursday (Wednesday night in the U.S.) Longtime women's hockey rivals, Canada and the U.S., faced off and the Florida high school shooting left pairs skaters distraught. Here are the Pyeongchang Games by the numbers.
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Friday, Feb 16, 2018 at 12:11 AM

Nineteen-year-old Nikolas Cruz was booked into jail and charged with murder Thursday morning, less than 24 hours after he allegedly went on a deadly rampage at South Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in what became one of the deadliest mass school shootings in U.S. history.
A judge ordered that Cruz be held without bond, at a hearing Thursday afternoon. Cruz was wearing an orange jumpsuit with his hands cuffed at his waist during the hearing. His public defender Melisa McNeill did not contest the order and had her arm around Cruz during the brief court appearance.
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Thursday, Feb 15, 2018 at 1:00 PM

A female inmate at York Correctional Institution in Niantic, Connecticut, gave birth in her cell Tuesday morning and the state Department of Correction is conducting an internal investigation.
As soon as the Department of Correction discovered the baby, the new mother and her child were treated onsite and immediately transported to an area hospital for further evaluation, state officials said.
The mother and child are reported to be in good health.
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Wednesday, Feb 14, 2018 at 6:19 PM

Authorities in Florida say the shooter opened fire at a high school Wednesday afternoon, killing at least 17 people. The shooting sent frightened students running out into the streets and SWAT team members swarming the building.
Here's a look at some recent U.S. school shootings, and some of the deadliest of years past:
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Friday, Feb 16, 2018 at 9:05 AM

In the quarterfinals of the men's snowboard cross competition, Austria's Markus Schairer had a scary fall where he landed on his back and broke his fifth cervical vertebra. The Austrian Olympic Committee said he didn't sustain any neurological impairment and was in stable condition.
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Thursday, Feb 15, 2018 at 8:12 AM

McDonald's will soon banish cheeseburgers and chocolate milk from its Happy Meal menu in an effort to cut down on the calories, sodium, saturated fat and sugar that kids consume at its restaurants.
Diners can still ask specifically for cheeseburgers or chocolate milk with the kid's meal, but the fast-food company said that not listing them will reduce how often they're ordered. Since it removed soda from the Happy Meal menu four years ago, orders for it with Happy Meals have fallen 14 percent, the company said.
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Thursday, Feb 15, 2018 at 8:51 PM

The NYPD sergeant charged with murder and other crimes in the shooting death of a 66-year-old mentally ill Bronx woman he had claimed charged him with a baseball bat in 2016 has been found not guilty on all counts.
The verdict in the trial of Sgt. Hugh Barry, who had also been accused of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the death of Deborah Danner, was read Thursday morning as dozens of colleagues supporting the officer packed the courtroom.
Danner was a paranoid schizophrenic who had been hospitalized at least 10 times. On Oct. 18, 2016, Barry, an eight-year department veteran, encountered her naked and armed with scissors in her Castle Hill apartment after responding to a 911 call about a disturbance. He persuaded her to put down the scissors, but as he was coaxing her out of the room, she picked up a baseball bat and charged him, his attorney said at the time. Barry fired two shots, killing her.
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Thursday, Feb 15, 2018 at 9:22 AM

Before heading out to skate on the Olympic ice Thursday, the Knierims saw the news of the deadly Florida high school shootings. The only U.S. pairs skaters at the games were hurting.
"I'm emotionally drained," Alexa Scimeca-Knierim said as she broke down in tears following one of the most difficult performances of their careers. "I kind of put pressure on myself and wanted to honor those who were lost today.
"We are so privileged and lucky to be doing what we are doing, and it's so sad that 17 people died in the United States. I told Chris today he'd need to be so much stronger than me.
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